Disney looks to avoid the mistakes that it made with “The Little Mermaid” as it expands its “Frozen” empire

Jim Hill

10 years ago

25 years ago when “The Little Mermaid” first
arrived in theaters, The Walt Disney Company really wasn’t ready to capitalize on
how successful that hand-drawn animated feature would become.

And I mean REALLY not ready. If you dropped by your local
Disney Store during the 1989 holiday season looking to purchase some
“Little Mermaid” -themed merchandise, you’d have learned that what
little had been ordered in advance had long since been sold out. Most likely,
the only item that would have been left in stock was an Ariel doll with long blonde
hair.

“Why blonde hair instead of Ariel’s usual ginger locks?,”
you ask. Because Tyco (i.e., the toy company that produced this misbegotten piece
of “Mermaid” merch) had research in hand which stated that little
girls didn’t like to play with red-haired dolls.

The Mouse did learn for its initial “Mermaid”
-related mistakes. Which is why by May 18, 1990 (i.e., when the home
video version of this Academy Award-winning film first went on sale), Mickey
had more than 40 additional licensees lined up. As a direct result, sales of
“Little Mermaid” -themed merchandise accounted for nearly a third of
total sales at the Disney Stores in the months that followed this animated
feature’s release on VHS.

Now you’d think that the rest of The Walt Disney Company
would have learned from the Disney Stores’ 1989 misstep and then gotten serious
about the “Little Mermaid” business. But even though Ariel eventually
became one of Disney’s most popular characters, becoming a huge driver for the
Company’s $3-billion-a-year Disney Princess franchise, it still took Walt Disney
Parks & Resorts 12 years before it finally built its very first
Ariel-inspired “land” (i.e., Mermaid Lagoon. Which opened at Tokyo
DisneySea back in September 2001). And it would then be another decade before
the first stateside ride (i.e., “The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure.”
Which debuted at Disney California
Adventure Park
back in June of 2011) starring Flounder & friends would open.

So when it came time to cash in on another film based on
another Hans Christian Andersen tale, Disney was determined not to make the
same mistakes that it had made with Ariel when it came to Anna & Elsa. Which
is why — as it looks for new ways to extend the reach of the Company’s hugely
popular “Frozen” franchise — the Mouse is NOT moving at a glacial
pace.

Take — for example — the “Frozen” -themed
attraction that Disney Parks & Resorts announced this past Friday. To make
sure that theme parks fans will be able to journey ” … to Arendelle and
immerse them in many of their favorite moments and music from the film” as
quickly as possible, the Imagineers have decided to close Walt Disney World‘s
“Maelstrom” attraction on October 5th. And as soon as the last Guest
gets off of this boat ride (which is the centerpiece attraction of World
Showcase’s Norway
pavilion), construction workers will then begin gutting this Epcot show
building.

Mind you, WDI plans on leaving “Maelstrom” boat-and-trough ride
system in place. Which is what will then allow Walt Disney World to get its
“Frozen” -inspired attraction (which will make use of dimensional
sets, animatronic figures and film footage to recreate memorable scenes &
characters from that Chris Buck / Jennifer Lee film) open by late 2015 / early
2016. And by swapping this ride’s entrance & exit and then removing some of
“Maelstrom” ‘s post-show elements, the Imagineers even plan on
lengthening the trough that these boats travel in. Which will then allow them
to fold in a few more show scenes featuring Anna, Elsa, Kristoff and Olaf.

But again, it’ll be at least 15 months before WDW’s new
“Frozen” ride will welcome its first Guests. So to tide Anna &
Elsa fans over ’til this Epcot attraction can open, Disney’s Hollywood Studios
has decided to keep its super-popular “For the First Time in Forever: A
Frozen Sing-Along Celebration” show up & running at least through New
Years.

And then starting in late November, the Snow Queen will be filling
Cinderella’s shoes as the new host of the Magic
Kingdom‘s “Castle Dream
Lights” show. Only now instead of the Fairy Godmother waving her wand and
illuminating Cinderella Castle with over 200,000 holiday lights, it’ll be Elsa
using her icy magic to turn that theme park icon into a winter wonder.

And it’s not just the Disney theme parks who’ll be working
hard for the next year or so to keep “Frozen” front-of-mind. Starting
on September 28th, ABC‘s “Once Upon a Time” will begin a
multi-episode arc that plans on putting Anna, Elsa & Kristoff front &
center in that nighttime fantasy adventure.

In fact, “Once Upon A Time” ‘s fourth season
premiere — “A Tale of Two Sisters” — actually picks up right where
“Frozen,” the animated feature, left off. In Arendelle of the past
where Anna is getting ready to marry Kristoff, Elsa’s sister discovers that
their parents (who — as you may recall from the opening moments of this Academy
Award-winning animated feature — died when their ship was swamped by a huge
wave during a storm at sea) were headed to some mysterious destination in a
quest that may have held the secret to containing Elsa’s out-of-control ice
powers. And against Elsa’s wishes, Anna now wants to finish their parents’
fateful journey to find out what they exactly were looking for. Meanwhile, in
modern day Storybrooke, a scared and confused Elsa creates a powerful snow
monster for protection.

Kristoff (Scott Michael Foster) and Elsa (Georgina Haig) visit with Sven in the stables.
Photo by Katie Yu. Copyright American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Just so you know: The creators of “Once Upon a
Time” — Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz — personally wrote the
teleplay for “A Tale of Two Sisters.” And given the care &
thought that Kitsis & Horowitz put into casting the actors who will be
playing “Frozen” ‘s central trio, Georgina Haig (Elsa), Elizabeth Lail
(Anna) and Scott Michael Foster (Kristoff) are almost sure to shine on this TV
show.

And it’s not just ABC that will be extending / expanding
“Frozen” ‘s storyline. On January
6, 2015, Disney & Random House will be launching a brand-new
series of chapter books. Entitled “Anna & Elsa: Sisterhood is the
Strongest Magic,” the first of these “Frozen” -inspired tales
will be called “All Hail the Queen” while its follow-up is entitled
“Memory and Magic.” Then in March comes the third “Anna &
Elsa” chapter book, “A Warm Welcome” while in May Disney &
Random House will release “The Great Ice Engine.”

Walt Disney Animation Studios also plans on getting into the
expanding-the-“Frozen”- universe business with a brand-new short
which will feature the entire Arendelle gang. Tentatively titled “Frozen Fever,” this seven
minute-long film (which will be directed by Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee and
produced by Peter Del Vecho, the exact same trio that rode herd on the
full-length version of “Frozen”) will detail Elsa & Kristoff’s
efforts to make Anna’s birthday her best day ever.

John Lasseter — who, as part of a recent “Making of
Frozen” TV special, described “Frozen Fever” as being ” …
absolutely hilarious” — promised that this new short will feature a
brand-new song by Bobby & Kristen Anderson-Lopez (i.e., the
husband-and-wife team who won this year’s Best Song Oscar for “Let It
Go”) and will bow sometime in Spring of 2015.

And speaking of animation … Perhaps that the only
complaint that animation fans have had about “Frozen” is that they
wish that this feature had been done in hand-drawn animation like many of the
other, earlier Disney Princess films. Which is what makes the way that the Disney
Studio Store and Ghirardelli Soda Fountain & Chocolate Shop in Hollywood
has chosen to celebrate “Frozen” all the more intriguing.

Image courtesy of S/R Laboratories Animation Art & Convervation Center

You see, these folks — who have set up shop right next door
to the El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard
— wanted to see what Elsa would look like had she been animated just like
Ariel. Using the same sorts of inks, paints & cels that were used to
produce Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” back in 1989.

Which is why Disney Studio Store and Ghirardelli Soda
Fountain & Chocolate Shop turned to the talented team at the S/R Laboratories
Animation Art & Conservation Center and genuinely challenged them. They
asked “Can you create something that in 2D that looks like it’s almost 3D.”

So the artists & technicians at S/R Labs — using
inspirational artwork from “Frozen” that Walt Disney Studios provided
— took on this project. Starting with a 16 field cel, they spent months
experimenting with special paints to recreate the ice crystals in Elsa’s dress.
They also used all sorts of special effects to make this studio replica look
positively frosty.

The end result has become a huge hit with animation fans.
With hundreds of them making special trips into Hollywood
just so they can then view this 2D “Frozen” studio replica which is on
display at the Disney Studio Store and Ghirardelli Soda Fountain & Chocolate
Shop in person and then perhaps purchase a copy of this limited edition
collectible.

Of course, what’s kind of ironic about all this is that
“The Little Mermaid” was the very first hand-drawn animated feature
to make use of CAPS, the Computer Animation Production System that Walt Disney
Animation Studios developed with Pixar in the late 1980s. So if it hadn’t been
for all those lessons that Disney learned the hard way “Under the
Sea,” it’s highly unlikely that the world would have ever seen an animated
feature like “Frozen.”

This article was originally posted on the Huffington Post’s Entertainment page on September 17, 2014